KDDI haptic touch screen pushes your buttons

This KDDI smartphone has a pressure-sensitive haptic touch screen for games and other apps.

(Credit:
Tim Hornyak/CNET)

MAKUHARI, Japan–If you’re always pressing the wrong icon on your smartphone touch screen, Japan’s KDDI is working on a haptic screen that makes it feel like you’re pushing a button instead of just a flat surface.

Prototypes shown off here at Ceatec 2011 respond to pressure and provide a sensation of clicking a keyboard button. The cellphone giant demoed potential applications including easier Web browsing and more interactive game playing.

The tech was developed for industrial applications by Kyocera, which was exhibiting a small tactile screen for industrial use at the trade show outside Tokyo. It consists of a touch panel sitting on an LCD with piezoelectric elements.

KDDI has shown off the tech before for text input at Wireless Japan, but Ceatec saw its first demo for Web browsing and video games.

Kyocera developed the screen, which uses piezoelectric elements.

(Credit:
Tim Hornyak/CNET)

On a prototype phone, I tried selecting a typical tiny text link on a br… [Read more]